BUDHADEV KARMASKARversusSTATE OF WEST BENGAL

                   [2011) 11 S.C.R. 397


                BUDHADEV KARMASKAR                             A
                             v.
                STATE OF WEST BENGAL
            (Criminal Appeal No. 135 of 2010)
                  SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
                                                               B
[MARKANDEY KATJU AND GYAN SUDHA MISRA, JJ.]

      Public Interest Litigation - Sex workers - Problems of -
Panel had been set up vide earlier Court order dated
19.07.2011 with Mr. Pradip Ghosh, Senior Advocate, as its C
Chairman - Suggestions made by the Panel in its Third
Interim report dated 12.09.2011 - Held: The suggestions are
good - Sex workers face great difficulty in getting ration cards,
voter's identity cards or in opening bank accounts, etc. - The
authorities should see to it that sex workers do not face these D
difficulties as they are also citizens of India and have the
same fundamental rights as others - Suggestions made by
the Panel in its Third Interim Report be seriously taken into
consideration by the Central Government, the State
Governments and other authorities and hence all efforts be E
made to implement these suggestions expeditiously -
Without a proper office and infrastructure the Panel will not
be able to discharge its duties properly - Therefore, again the
Central Government and the State Government of Delhi are
requested to do the needful in this connection expeditiously F
- In pursuance of earlier order dated 24.08.2011 the Central
Government has deposited a sum of Rs. 10 Lakh with the
Secretary General of Supreme Court - Some of the States/
Union Territories have made payment as directed by
Supreme Court - However, some of the States/Union G
Territories are yet to make payment - Those States or Union
Territories which have not yet made payment are directed to
make payment within three weeks (except those which have
no sex workers) - Amount deposited with the Secretary

                            397                                H
    398     SUPREME COURT REPORTS                [2011) 11 S.C.R.


A General of Supreme Courl be transferred to the account of
  the Panel in the UCO Bank, Supreme Courl Compound
  Branch- Case be listed on 15.11.2011 by which time another
  reporl shall be submitted by the Panel.

B       CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal
    No. 135 of 2010.

        From the Judgment and Order dated 25.07.2007 of the
    High Court of Calcutta in C.R.A. No. 487 of 2004.

C        Solicitor General of India. P.P. Malhotra, ASG, Pradip
    Ghosh, Jayant Bhushan, T.S. Doabia, Ashok Bhan, A.
    Mariarputham, S. Sundaravaradhan, Anand Grover, Dr. Manish
    Singhvi, Shail Kr. Dwivedi, Manjit Singh, S.V. Madhukar, A.AG.,
    Pijush K. Roy, Rebbeca George, Gautam Talukdar, Lajja Ram,
D   Gaurav Sharma, Zaid Ali, Sushma Suri, Wasim Quadri, Anjani
    Aiyagari, Anil Katiyar, Sadhna Sandhu, S.S. Rawat, D.S. Mahra,
    lrshad Ahmad, Anitha Shenoy, Sandeep Singh, Alka Sinha,
    Anuvrat Sharma, D. Mahesh, Babu, Ramesh Allanki, Savita
    Dhanda, V. Pattabhi Ram, Riku Sarma, Navnit Kumar (for
E   Corporate Law Group), Anil Shrivastav, Rituraj Biswas, Gopal
    Singh, Manish Kumar, Anjani Aiyagari, S. Wasim A. Quadiri,
    A.J. Faisal, Hemantika Wahi, Ashwani Kumar, Tarjit Singh,
    Kamal Mohan Gupta, Abhishek Sood, Rohit Kr. Singh, Sunil
    Fernandes, Suhaas R. Joshi, Astha Sharma, P.V. Dinesh,
F   Rupesh Babu, Liz Mathew, Jogy Scaria, Sanjay V. Kh~rde (for
    Asha Gopalan Nair), Kh. Nobin Singh, Balaji Srinivasan, Radha·
    Shyam Jena, Kuldip Singh, R.K. Pandey, H.S. Sandhu, K.K.
    Pandey, M. Mohit Mudgil, Aruna Mathur, Avneesh Arputham,
    Yusuf Khan Aruputham Aruna & Co. Aniruddha P. Mayee,
G   Chanchal Kr. Ganguly, Abhijit Sengupta, T.C. Sharma, Anil K.
    Jha, Chhaya Kumari, S.K. Diwakar, Atul Jha, Dharmendra Kr.
    Sinha, Vibha Datta Makhija, V.G. Pragasam, S.J. Aristotle,
    Prabhu, Ramasubramanian, Savita Singh, Tripti Tandon,
    Amritananda Chakravorty, Mihir Samson, Prakash Kumar
    Singh, Ravi Kant, A. Subhashini, C.D. Singh, K.N.
H
   BUDHADEV KARMASKAR v STATE OF \NEST                          399
                BENGAL

Madhsoodhanan, M.T. George, Subramonium, Prasad, J.K.                  A
Bhatia, Manpreet Singh Doabia, Kiran Bhardwaj, Edward
Belho, C.H. Kennedy, K. inatoli Serna, Nimshim Voshum,
Ranja~ Mukherjee for the appearing parties.

     The following order of the Court was delivered                    8
                              ORDER

     Heard learned Amicus Curiae and learned counsel for the
parties.
                                                                       c
     This case was initially a criminal appeal, but later was
converted into a Public Interest Litigation suo motu by our order
dated 14th February, 2011. By that order we dismissed the
criminal appeal of the appellant and upheld his conviction.
However, we were of the opinion that the problems of sex
                                                                       0
workers required urgent attention by this Court. Hence, we
proceeded thereafter to continue with the case as a Public
Interest Litigation and passed several orders thereon .. including
an order dated 19.07.2011 setting up a Panel with Mr. Pradip
Ghosh, Senior Advocate, as its Chairman.
                                                                       E
     Today, the case has been listed again before us and a
Third Interim Report dated 12.09.2011 of the Panel appointed
by our order dated 19.07.2011 has been filed before us by the
Chairman of the Panel Mr. Pradip Ghosh, learned senior
counsel.                                                               F

     From a perusal of the report submitted by the Panel report
it appears that the Panel has been doing very good and sincere
work in connection with the task which we have entrusted to it.
The Panel has taken great pains and has held regular meetings          G
to discuss the problem of sex workers.

    We have earlier pointed out in one of our orders that the
problem of sex workers cannot be resolved in a very short time
and will require long, patient effort. Our initial aim was to create
                                                                       H
    400       SUPREME CGURT REPORTS                 [2011] 11 S.C.R.


A   awareness in the public that sex workers are not bad girls, but
    they are in this profession due to poverty. No girl would
    ordinarily enjoy this kind of work, but she is compelled to do it
    for sheer survival. Most sex workers come from poor families,
    they are subjected to ill treatment by the owners of the brothels,
8   they are often beaten, not given proper food or medical
    treatment, and made to do this degrading work. Probably much
    of the money paid by their customers is taken away by others.

       We are happy to note that the Panel has set about its task
  in right earnest, and is considering ways and means to
C implement our ideas so that the sex workers can get some
  technical training through which they can earn their livelihood
  and thus lead a life of dignity which is guaranteed by Article
  21 of the Constitution of India.

D        In the Third Interim Report.the Panel has prayed for the
    following :-

          (a) An appropriate order directing the State Governments
          and the Local Authorities to ;ssue Ration Cards to the sex
          workers treating them as persons in special category and
E         relaxing the rigours of the Rules/requirements regarding
          the verification of their address and without mentioning
          their profession in the Card;

          (b) An appropriate order be made directing the Central
F         Government and the Election Commission to issue Voter's
          Identity Cards to the sex workers in relaxation of the rules/
          requirements in that behalf and without insisting on strict
          proof of their address/profession and without specifying
          their profession on the face of the Card;
G         {c) An order be made directing the Central Government
          and the State Governments to ensure that the admission
          of the children of sex workers in appropriate classes in the
          Government schools and Government sponsored schools
          and the schools run by the Municipal and District level
H
   BUDHADEV KARMASKAR v. STATE OF WEST                       401
                         BE~GAL

     authorities is not hampered in any way, because of their       A
     impaired social status.

     (d) An appropriate order be made directing the Central
     Government to suitably alter and widen the UJWALA
     Scheme within a period of six months as directed by order      B
     dated 24.08.2011 (vide paragraph 26 of the said order)
     made in this matter.

     (e) An order or direction be made to the effect that the
    amount paid or to be paid by the Central Government,
    State Governments and the Union Territories to the              C
    Secretary General of this Hon'ble Court as directed by
    order dated 24.08.2011, be deposited in the Bank Account
    of the Panel in the UCO Bank Supreme Court Compound
    Branch, iil the name of "Panel Appointed by Supreme
    Court in Criminal Appeal No. 135/2011" to be operated           D
    jointly by the Chairman of the Panel Mr. Pradip Ghosh and
    Mr. Jaya'nt Bhusan, a member of the Panel, in terms of the
    order dated 24.08.2011.

     (f) Such appropriate orders as may be deemed fit and           E
     proper be made, for compliance by the Central
     Government of the earlier order made by the Hon'ble Court
     on 24.08.2011 with regard to office accommodation,
     secretarial staff assistance and furnishing the office with
     necessary infrastructure and to furnish report of compliance   F
     in this Hon'ble. Court within a period to be fixed by the
     Hon'ble Court."

     We are of the opinion that the suggestions of the Panel
are good suggestions. Sex workers face great difficulty in
getting ration cards, voter's identity cards or in opening bank     G
accounts, etc. We are of the opinion that the authorities should
see to it that sex workers do not face these difficulties as they
are also citizens of India and have the same fundamental rights
as others.
                                                                    H
    402      SUPREME COURT REPORTS                 [2011] 11 S.C.R.


A      We, therefore, recommend that the suggestions made by
  the Panel in its Third Interim Report (which has been quoted
  above) shall be seriously taken into consideration by the Central
  Government, the State Governments and other authorities and
  hence all efforts shall be made to implement these suggestions
B expeditiously. If there is any difficulty in implementing them, then
  on the next date we should be told about such difficulty.

       Needless to say, without a proper office and infrastructure
  the Panel will not be able to discharge its duties properly. We,
C therefore, again request the Central Government and the State
  Government of Delhi to do the needful in this connection
    expeditiou~ly.

          We are informed that in pursuance of our order dated
  24.08.2011 the Central Government has deposited a sum of
D Rs. 10 Lakh with the Secretary General of this Court. Some of
  the States/Union Territories have made payment as directed
  by us. However, some of the States/Union Territories are yet
  to make payment. We direct th<-t those States or Union
  Territories which have not yet made payment shall make
E payment within three weeks from today (except those which
  have no sex workers).

      We further direct that the amount deposited with the
  Secretary General of this Court shall be transferred to the
  account of the Panel in the UCO Bank, Supreme Court
F Compound Branch in Savings AJC No. 02070210000939.
       List this case on 15.11.2011 by which time another report
  shall be submitted by the Panel. We hope and trust that the
  recommendations made by the Panel will be implemented by
G then by the concerned authorities.

    B.B.B.                                       Appeal Adjourned.